Here's a video I co produced way back in the 80s...

[Hector]

Dakota Son, Love on the Line...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6Ws7dBR5Jk

An old college buddy of mine told me it was on YouTube, had no idea, lol.

The channel is from Ray Cepeda, Dakota Son guitarist at the time.

The band featured Chepito, who used to play congas for Santana. The drummer is Atma Amur, formerly a session drummer for Journey.

I personally never liked that lame song, nor I thought the band was anything special...and it's rather cheesy and outdated...but look it for what it was...not a bad production from the 80s, especially from students, it had the blessing of San Francisco State, and they did lend us 16mm cameras and use of the editing facilities (after all, most of us were students there at the time), but a lot of it came from our pockets. We went through the process of obtaining a permit to shoot at San Francisco's famed Legion of Honor museum, we finally did after a few months of trying, after hours, went it was closed, for two late afternoons and nights. We also took a one million dollar insurance policy for two days and nights, I forgot how much was that, but it was not cheap, especially for college kids.

I was 19 or 20 at the time, ha...

Hope you like it, cheesy 80s goodness...

[Werewolf]

That's actually really cool you worked on that. Yeah, it's totally 80s. But that's not really a bad thing.

[Brazoo]

That's actually really impressive, man! Multiple locations, plus costumes and a large cast like that. Plus, shooting on 16. I see some nice tracking shots in there, or maybe you guys used a steadicam? Plus all those online video effects are cheese looking now, but must have been pretty tricky for the time. Pretty damn ambitious - especially considering your age!

The part where the guys lips are bright red, were you guys trying to do a Rocky Horror Picture Show floating lips effect? I noticed the rest of his face is painted dark brown or black.

[Hector]

We did use the very rudimentary video toaster non linear editing software using an Amiga Commodore 2000...as post production took place between 89-90. San Francisco State has both a Filmmaking and Mass Comunications/Broadcasting departments.

All the 16mm film was transferred to 1/2 inch Betacam tapes.

Yes, the multiple locations were cool, but hard work...as some locations required permit...as the before mentioned Legion of Honor museum.

We also placed an add at school, looking for actors and models...and well, that part was easy, as SFSU has a lively drama department as well.

16mm was expensive as heck, we had a limited budget...so we could only afford so much...we were very selective...and there was almost no retakes, we just couldn't waste film...so a lot of the scenes were not our first choices...but we had to keep what we had...and just wing it...guerrilla filmmaking, lol.

It was both a hard and fun experience...

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it...

[Hector]

No steadicam...we actually used the traditional tracking camera method. Costumes were from the drama department.

Glad you noticed all the details...are you a filmmaker?

[Hector]

The director, a fellow student...well, he and I disagreed a lot. I wanted a traditional just shoot them playing for most of the music video...let them be the focus...and everything else secondary. He went the complete opposite. If you watch it again...you'll notice the individual band members themselves are hardly on screen playing...most are composites of other stuff, unrelated to the band...such as the Matador scene, the tribal dancing, the fat guy laughing, the ocean waves, etc...I thought it was way too distracting. But he did it his way...I was in charge of casting, location shoots, equipment rentals, feeding the crew...I actually forked out $2000 of my own money...more than anyone else in the crew...and $2000 was a LOT of money back then...especially for a 19-20 year old student such as myself. The director and I had a little falling out after production ended. We were never buds to begin with. In the end, I was proven right...as most band members wished I had directed the video...they were highly disappointed at how little on screen time each one got. The only one who was okay with it...is the same guy who posted the video on YouTube, Ray Cepeda...the guitarist...who in my opinion, was the weak link of the group. But he did get to kiss the girl...so I don't blame him one bit, lol...